‘Something had really been missing from my life.’ Why I ditched San Francisco for Savannah, where the median home costs just $285,000

When 30-year-old start-up investor Keyan Karimi’s Silicon Valley workplace shut down resulting from COVID-19 in March 2020, he went to go to his dad and mom in his hometown of Atlanta. “I used to be spending time with them and it made me understand one thing had actually been lacking from my life. It had been virtually 10 years since I spent greater than two weeks with my household since I’d gone to school out of state, labored in Dubai after which California,” says Karimi. 

With work-from-home turning into the brand new norm, Karimi started to think about a transfer. A Zillow seek for inexpensive historic properties in Atlanta didn’t reveal any promising prospects, however when Karimi zoomed out, he seen a cluster of crimson dots hovering over Savannah, about 3 and a half hours away. “That led to a go to, since I’d by no means been there, and I began taking a look at homes,” says Karimi.

Although he had been renting an condominium in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood whereas commuting to Silicon Valley, Karimi knew he’d discovered his subsequent residence the minute he walked right into a historic row home in downtown Savannah. “Downtown Savannah is definitely fairly costly and within the final 12 months it’s actually exploded. The worth of properties in my neighborhood have gone up 45%, which implies my taxes have elevated and my value is definitely now a little bit greater than what I paid in hire,” says Karimi. Nonetheless, he says it’s like evaluating apples to oranges, since he had a junior one-bedroom condominium in San Francisco — and he’s now in a row home duplex with a courtyard and a storage. 

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What it actually comes all the way down to for Karimi is the way in which his life has improved since leaving the tech capital. “I like the walkability, regardless that San Francisco is taken into account a walkable place, you continue to need to stroll from neighborhood to neighborhood. Right here, it’s block to dam and wherever you wish to exit or eat is multi function neighborhood,” says Karimi. This, he says, is one cause Savannah incessantly lands on lists of the very best cities to go to in the US. 

He was additionally shocked to find how a lot the south needed to supply businesswise. “Seeing corporations relocating and beginning right here was actually stunning. The inhabitants from all the colleges has an urge for food for innovation, expertise and constructing the group up,” says Karimi. And, that’s made it simpler for him to proceed to work remotely. “I partnered with some entities right here … attempt to convey a component of Silicon Valley tech because it applies to logistics, and I launched an initiative the place we’re going to convey that to a few of these corporations,” says Karimi. Now, with these tasks on his docket, he has much more of an excuse to remain in Georgia completely.

After all, he misses most of the individuals he knew within the Bay Space. “It’s only a totally different stage in San Francisco. Irrespective of the place you’re on the planet, the very best expertise and the neatest individuals are drafted by corporations to Silicon Valley. Residing and dealing there’s something I wouldn’t commerce for something,” says Karimi.